The Patriots are known for their amazing consistency. In a league where teams struggle to stay on top, New England wins year after year. The symbols of that consistency are head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady.

Belichick and Brady are two of the few things that remain in place year after year with the Patriots, though. The Patriots are not afraid of change. In fact, they embrace it. The changes from their title teams of the early 2000s are obvious. Only Brady remains from those teams, and long gone are Belichick assistants like Charlie Weis and Romeo Crennel, who were key cogs in those teams.

But you don’t have to go far back to see how much roster turnover the Patriots go through. The team that takes the field for Super Bowl LI will look much different from the one that won Super Bowl XLIX just two years ago.

There are only 23 players left on the Patriots out of the 44 who played in the Super Bowl win over the Seahawks two years ago in Arizona. Only seven of the players who started that game for the Patriots started in the AFC Championship last week — Brady, wide receiver Julian Edelman, left tackle Nate Solder, linebackers Dont’a Hightower and Rob Ninkovich and safeties Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung.

Two of the starters from the win over the Seahawks are on injured reserve — tight end Rob Gronkowski and tackle Sebastian Vollmer. There are five other players who probably will start in Super Bowl LI who were backups two years ago — running back LeGarrette Blount, right tackle Marcus Cannon, defensive tackle Alan Branch and cornerbacks Logan Ryan and Malcolm Butler.

It is a testament to the Patriots system that they could overturn the roster like they have and still make the Super Bowl. There is no such thing as rebuilding in New England. Losing Gronkowski would destroy other teams. The Patriots keep on rolling.

One of the big storylines entering the 2015 season was how the Patriots would survive after getting rid of some key pieces of that 2014 championship team. Cornerbacks Darrelle Revis and Brandon Browner were both allowed to walk in free agency. The Patriots declined to pick up an option on Revis and a roster bonus on Browner. Both had been key pieces of that championship run. The Patriots were questioned at the time, but neither Revis nor Browner has been the same player since leaving the Patriots. New England plugged in Malcolm Butler and Logan Ryan at cornerback and have been even better on defense.

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Out of the 22 players who started two years ago, 13 of them are no longer on the team. Belichick let fan favorite Vince Wilfork go last year. He traded Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins this year.

Belichick has restocked the roster mainly through the draft. They have taken 20 players over the last two drafts, and 14 still are on the team. Six of them are expected to start in this Super Bowl.

The eye for personnel Belichick and lead personnel man Nick Caserio have is one aspect of the Patriots’ success that sometimes is overlooked.

“I think you look at the sustained success that we’ve had from ’01 until now, you can’t do it without guys that know what they’re looking for in the personnel department, and you can’t do it without a great coaching staff that knows how to develop talent,” said Matthew Slater, the team’s special-teams ace. “So between finding talent and developing talent, you have to give kudos to Nick Caserio, Coach Belichick, and then obviously our whole coaching staff for what they’ve been able to do.

“I don’t think they get enough credit for the way they develop players here and the players that they’ve been able to find.”